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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24918472">Conversations We Have While Trying to Save the World</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wasianhermione/pseuds/wasianhermione'>wasianhermione</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Runaways (TV 2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, a little bit of sweet gertchase, angsty gertchase, bc that's like my favorite dynamic in the world, but like i said it's mostly angst, classic miscommunication gertchase, i hope you all like it i heart gertchase lots, internal monologues from 1x09, mentions of sex but not actual sex, plus there's some chase and nico bromance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:48:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,531</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24918472</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wasianhermione/pseuds/wasianhermione</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Gert and Chase like each other, they really do. But they have bigger things to worry about than whether or not their one-night stand meant anything. Like the impending end of the world at the hands of their own parents.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chase Stein &amp; Gertrude Yorkes, Chase Stein/Gertrude Yorkes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Conversations We Have While Trying to Save the World</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>playlist:<br/>you are in love – t.s.<br/>ocean eyes (blackbear remix) – b.e.<br/>heart like yours – w.s.<br/>no right to love you (acoustic) – rhys lewis<br/>same room – jp saxe<br/>like everybody else (acoustic) – lennon stella<br/>athlete – greyson chance</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There’s a moment of stillness after the best moments of your life. It’s like your brain and your heart and your stomach and your soul all know what just happened and they can sense that whatever comes next could never measure up. But you keep going, keep moving, because life is keep moving or stop moving forever. Gert Yorkes just had one of those moments, and it was all thanks to Chase Stein. The same Chase Stein who she had known since forever; the same Chase Stein who had ignored her for pretty much all of high school; the same Chase Stein who she’d been in love with since she was thirteen and naïve. She never expected to even speak to Chase again, much less have sex with him at a school dance on what was sure to be their last night on Earth. But time and space and the universe have a funny way of making things happen, whether you expect them to or not.</p><p>It doesn’t completely hit Gert what happened in that conference room turned abandoned wedding reception until she’s rushing into the hallway of the hotel – her dress still only half on – and running into Nico and Karolina, who seem to be caught in the throes of their own passionate makeout.  Somewhere in her brain she celebrates that she was right about Karolina’s feelings for Nico, but her main thoughts still pretty much only consist of Chase and his voice and his lips and his hands on her waist. Gert’s distraction is only overpowered by the awkward tension in the room, and eventually the sound of Chase’s voice suggesting that they get a move on. Suddenly, Gert’s trance is broken and she is able to think again of things other than Chase Stein – who she definitely does <em>not</em> notice as he buttons his shirt but leaves the lipstick stain on the pulse point of his neck. She’s rushing down the stairs behind Nico, hoping that she doesn’t still have sex hair, wondering if Chase’s eagerness to move on from their hookup meant anything.</p><p>She doesn’t have much time to dwell on the thought before they’re pushing through hordes of teenagers who are all none the wiser about what’s about to go down. In the midst of their somewhat asthma inducing trek towards her car, she can’t help but wonder what this night would’ve been like if they weren’t about to go destroy an alien sinkhole and possible California altogether. She probably wouldn’t be at this dance, wearing this dress, teaming up with these people; she definitely would not have just done what she just did with Chase. She decides as she’s slipping into the driver’s seat that she’s okay with everything that’s happened; sure, she’s still pissed that her parents are serial killers and that there’s a very good chance she’s going to die tonight, but hey, at least she got to cross one thing off her bucket list before the end of the world as they knew it.</p><hr/><p>Chase Stein was never a super religious person, but after tonight, he definitely believed in a God. There’s no way that he got to have sex with Gert Yorkes based purely on dumb luck. Especially not after the way he’s treated her these past few years – or more accurately, the way he’s let his teammates treat her these past few years. Chase would never intentionally hurt her, but still, his actions were grounds for her to never speak to him again. But tonight, the best – and possibly last – night of his life, God or the universe or whoever must have been looking out for him, because he’s been a little bit in love with Gert for a very long time, and now he knew that her lips tasted like melons and mint and that she likes to play with his hair and that she feels at least a little bit the same way towards him.</p><p>He’s stealing what’s probably his five hundredth look at Gert in the car when he notices a smirking Nico in his peripheral vision. Almost immediately, he pulls his phone out of his pocket and opens their messages.</p><p>
  <strong>Chase: so what was that back there with karolina?</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Nico: none of your business</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>         what was that back there with gert?</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Chase: i wish i knew</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>           i mean, i do know, i’m not stupid</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>           i just don’t really know what it means</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Nico: well do you know what she thinks?</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Chase: absolutely no clue</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>            but maybe it’s better like that</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>            i mean, this is kind of the worst time in the world to start any sort of relationship</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>           obviously i don’t want to hurt her or anything but i just don’t know</strong>
</p><p>Chase fired off one last text as he noticed Gert glancing in his direction. He wanted to be able to talk out what had happened between them; he didn’t want her to find out how he felt through text messages that weren’t even to her, and he definitely did not want to have to have that conversation in front of all of their friends and her little sister and a pet dinosaur. As soon as he looked up from his phone, Gert turns her head away from him, her jaw clenched and her breathing heavier than normal. He goes to reach for her hand with his when his phone screen lights up with another message from Nico.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Nico: well don’t wait too long you idiot</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>         i mean, gert may be gert, but she’s still a girl with girl feelings</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Chase knew that Nico was right, so he made a resolve to talk to Gert as soon as the fate of the world wasn’t in any immediate danger. He’d been holding his feelings for her in for the past fifteen years, what was a couple more hours?</p><hr/><p>Gert isn’t much one for snooping in other people’s text messages, but she was just too curious to ignore the conversation Chase was clearly having with Nico while he was sitting right next to her. But she regretted looking at his phone as soon as she did it. She couldn’t see the whole thing, but she knew unmistakably that he had written about <em>‘not starting a relationship’ </em>and <em>‘not wanting to hurt her feelings’</em>. So, tonight was just a one night thing for him. Gert’s heart sank into her stomach as she realized that she had let herself become just another notch in the belt of Golden Boy Chase Stein. She had done the one thing she promised herself she would never do: let a boy use her for her body and try to diminish her worth by decreasing her to nothing more than an object to be manipulated for a man’s pleasure.</p><p>Gert’s hands tensed around the steering wheel as she tried to control her anger and take a cleansing breath. Just because Chase had screwed her over and used her for sex doesn’t mean she has to go all crazy rage monster and crash the car before they could even claim a victory against Pride. She did however make a resolution to steel herself; she knew she couldn’t avoid a confrontation with Chase forever and she definitely did not want to let him see her cry. In fact, Gert realized it would be better to strike preemptively, to turn Chase down before he had the chance to turn her down. Then, she could walk away relatively unscathed, Chase didn’t have to go through what would definitely be an awkward rejection conversation, and the friend group wouldn’t have to break up for a second time.</p><p>The entire car ride was filled with hushed, nervous conversation. It was a mixture of planning for what was to come, and making wishes for the future, and trying to distract each other from the inevitability of disaster at the construction site. Alex was all business, his eyes steely and concentrated; Molly seemed almost excited at the prospect of getting to use her newly mastered strength; Karolina divided her time between reassuring Alex about her powers and staring at Nico with a smile on her face; and Nico was visibly nervous, but seemed to find solitude in Karolina’s fingers intertwined with her own. The only one Gert couldn’t get a read on was Chase: he seemed distracted, looking at her and then his hands and then the road and then her again.</p><p>Somewhere amidst the murmuring and the angry breathing and the looking in the rearview mirror to make sure nobody had spotted the dinosaur, Gert had managed to get them to the construction site undetected. She couldn’t help but notice that Chase hadn’t much taken his eyes off of her as she’d parked the car. She rolled her eyes, frustrated that she still cared whether or not he was looking at her. But still, she made a subtle move to check her hair and makeup in the car window as they prepared to take on their parents. Not that she cared about Chase’s opinion of her hair or her makeup or anything about her for that matter but, you know, still.</p><hr/><p>In his mind, Chase knew that the most important thing at the moment was defeating their parents and foiling Jonah’s plan. But no matter how hard he focused, the thought of Gert was constantly in the back of his head. He could sense throughout the car ride that she was antsy, maybe even anxious, and he just wanted to be able to set the record straight, let her know that he wanted more than just a one night stand. But it was game time, so he turned off his phone – mostly because Alex was smart enough to think about the fact that their parents could track them – and saddled up to aggressively vandalize a construction site and hopefully destroy an alien ship in the process. He was admittedly nervous, but he felt a little more comfortable as each member of the team confirmed that they were absolutely ready to carry out the mission and kick some Pride ass. At least, he felt more comfortable until they vetoed the dinosaur’s accompaniment, and he watched as Gert’s heart broke. Chase knew Gert better than almost anyone else – he could tell that she felt like the damsel of the group with no way to defend herself. But he also knew that that wasn’t true and that she was way stronger than she gave herself credit for, but he didn’t really have the time to tell her that right now. So instead, he promised himself that he would protect her, no matter what happened.</p><p>As Alex ran through the plan, though, Chase could feel his doubt creeping in – who were they to stop the most powerful people in all of Los Angeles? A bunch of indignant teens with newly discovered superpowers and a bone to pick with their parents? That didn’t bode very well for their chances at success. He tried to express his worry, but as soon as he spoke, it was obvious he said the wrong thing. All his friends seemed to wince at his words, but Gert’s reaction was more apparent than anyone else’s.</p><p>As soon as he said it, he regretted it: not only did it make it look like he didn’t believe in them, but it wasn’t even true. I mean, he had literally just experienced his personal best case scenario a couple hours ago in a conference room with Gert. It was official: Chase Stein is an idiot. He had to make it right with her, and it was all he could think about as they manipulated their way into the site – what he was going to say, how many times he was going to apologize, how to get his hands to stop sweating in case she wanted to hold hands on the drive back home. When she volunteered to help him find the controls for the drill, he felt his stomach do a somersault. She even took his hand as they ran toward what looked like the control panels. Maybe she didn’t read into his comment at all, maybe it was all in his head.</p><p>Or maybe it wasn’t. It seemed like angry, condescending Gert had returned as quickly as she’d gone away. As Chase worked at the control panels, she stood at his side and mocked him for being an idiot – making the same comments she’d apologized for earlier that night. Chase had to admit, it stung that she could go back to being mean after the moment they had shared; he thought it meant something. But maybe he was wrong. Maybe Gert didn’t feel the same way he did, and she just wanted one last night of misbehaved adolescence before the end of the world. In all honesty, it made sense. Why would someone as smart and strong-willed and wonderful as her ever forgive him for the way he acted?</p><p>Still, he tried to defend himself. He could feel himself trembling, but he just wanted to get it all out there before she had a chance to misinterpret everything.</p><p>“Are you mad at me? About what happened between us?” Chase tried to keep his words slow and his breathing even, but he could feel his stomach dropping to his shoes and he just wanted to fix this so they could go back to saving the world and then celebrate by riding off into the sunset for a happy ever after.</p><p>“What, that we had sex in the middle of the abandoned Tannenbaum wedding? Or that we didn’t stop to talk about it or define the relationship?” Gert looked panicked, but he couldn’t tell if it was because of where they were standing or what they were talking about.</p><p>“That was an hour ago! And now we’re trying to prevent California from dropping into the ocean,” Chase gestured to the ginormous drill standing in front of them. He really liked this girl, and he wanted to figure this whole thing out, but this felt like a really terrible time to use the phrase “define the relationship”. “I’m not saying what happened wasn’t also important but –”</p><p>“It wasn’t. It was just a one-time thing,” Gert shrugged, turning back to the complicated module that stood between them.</p><p>Chase had had his heart broken before, but this was different: it was like his heart had turned to dust in his chest. As far as he could tell, his chest cavity was totally empty now. Less than an hour and a half ago, Chase was having the best night of his life. Not only did he get to have sex with Gertrude Yorkes, but he finally felt like things might just be okay. Even if his parents were cultist murderers, he had his best friend back and there was a chance she would even be more than just his best friend. But now, he was standing in front of a machine he didn’t understand, in the middle of a battle they couldn’t win, with a girl who didn’t want anything to do with him. It was safe to say that this night turned sour faster than he could say “Fistigons”.</p>
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